Tuesday, 28 February 2017

Archaeologists
documenting Isil’s destruction of the ruins of the Tomb of the Prophet
Jonah say they have made an unexpected discovery which could help in our
understanding of the world’s first empire.
The Nebi Yunus shrine - containing what Muslims and Christians
believe to be the tomb of Jonah, as he was known in the Bible, or Yunus
in the Koran - was blown up by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
(Isil) militants soon after they seized huge swathes of northern Iraq in 2014.

The shrine is situated on top of
a hill in eastern Mosul called Nebi Yunus - one of two mounds that form
part of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh.

But
local archaeologists have told the Telegraph that Isil also dug tunnels
deep under the demolished shrine and into a previously undiscovered and
untouched 600BC palace.
Limited excavation was carried out by the Ottoman governor of Mosul
in 1852, which was revisited by the Iraqi department of antiquities in
the 1950s. But neither team reached as far as the palace.

It is the first evidence of Isil’s use of tunneling in ancient grounds in their hunt for artefacts to plunder.
Inside one of the tunnels, Iraqi archaeologist Layla Salih discovered
a marble cuneiform inscription of King Esarhaddon thought to date back
to the Assyrian empire in 672BC.

While the
king’s name is not visible on the cuneiform slab, a historian who has
seen photographs of it says phrases are legible which were used only to
describe him, in particular his rebuilding of Babylon after his father
Sennacherib had it destroyed.

The
palace was built for Sennacherib, renovated and expanded by Esarhaddon
(681-669 BC), and renovated again by Ashurbanipal (669-627). It was
partly destroyed during the Sack of Nineveh in 612 BC.

There are
only a handful of such cuneiforms recovered from the period, most of
which from the second mound just north of Nebi Yunus in Kouyunjik.
In another part of the tunnel they discovered Assyrian stone
sculptures of a demi-goddess, depicted sprinkling the “water of life” to
protect humans in her care.
“I’ve never seen something like this in stone at this large size,”
said Prof Eleanor Robson, chair of the British Institute for the Study
of Iraq, suggesting they may have been used to decorate the women's
quarter of the palace. “The objects don’t match descriptions of what we
thought was down there, so Isil’s destruction has actually led us to a
fantastic find.

“There’s a huge amount of history down there, not just ornamental
stones. It is an opportunity to finally map the treasure-house of the
world’s first great empire, from the period of its greatest success.”Ms Salih, a former curator of the
Mosul museum who is supervising a five-man team carrying out the
emergency documentation, said she believes Isil looted hundreds of
objects before Iraqi forces recaptured the eastern side of the city.
“I can only imagine how much Daesh discovered down there before we
got here,” she told the Telegraph by phone from Mosul. “We believe they
took many of the artefacts, such as pottery and smaller pieces, away to
sell. But what they left will be studied and will add a lot to our
knowledge of the period."

She
warned that the tunnels were not professionally built, however, and are
at risk of collapsing “within weeks” - burying and potentially
destroying the new finds.

Experts
from the British Institute for the Study of Iraq - alongside other
international teams - are bidding to help local archaeologists secure
and document the site. Unesco is due to hold a meeting in Paris later
this month to decide who will be sent.
The terror group destroyed several other key landmarks in Mosul and
elsewhere because they considered the worshipping of shrines not to be
in keeping with their Islamic traditions. Isil militants believe giving
special veneration to tombs and relics is against the teachings of
Islam.

A report
just released by the Iraqi Kurdistan regional government lists some 100
sacred buildings damaged or wiped off the map during Isil’s two-year
reign.
They closed all of Mosul’s museums and cultural centres during their
more than two-year reign over the city. Many of the city’s
archaeologists and historians went into hiding.
“Many decided to stay in the city when Isil came, fearing what they
might do to their families if they fled,” said Prof Robson. “They hid
their books and lied about their expertise. Thankfully, most of them
survived.”